News from Hard Work U.®

Subject: College of the Ozarks Files Suit Against Government Departments

On the 225th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, the College of the Ozarks is seeking the enforcement of the rights guaranteed to it by the Constitution by suing the federal agencies tasked with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

“The so-called Affordable Care Act is government at its worst,” says College of the Ozarks President Jerry C. Davis, while announcing the College’s litigation against the U.S. Departments of HHS, Labor, and Treasury. September 17th is the 225th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. “This is not a partisan issue. It is a constitutional issue, and the College wants its rights respected and enforced, instead of being trampled upon,” Davis said. “The Constitution still matters.”

The College objects, on the basis of its religious beliefs, to the Contraceptive Mandate contained in the Act as it relates to elective abortion, abortifacient drugs, and education and counseling about these subjects. Despite the fact the College has been judicially recognized as a religious institution, it is not religious enough to meet the narrow definition created in the Act for a religious employer. Further, the College is not religious enough to qualify for the safe harbor created by the government in response to criticism about the Mandate.

The government actions, in issuing new interpretations and clarification of the Act in direct response to legal challenge, are an effort to manipulate the court’s jurisdiction and avoid judicial review. The College seeks a determination that the Act violates numerous constitutional and statutory provisions and asks for protection so that it is not placed in the untenable position of choosing to obey the law or ignore its religious beliefs.

Dr. Davis states that in his opinion, “Such legislation flies in the face of religious liberty that the founders of our country sought to protect and many have died to defend. Religious liberty is at the heart of this issue, and we Americans better wake up. Now that God has been removed from public schools, shoved off the public square, we now see that a faceless group of unelected government bureaucrats have decided to redefine what constitutes a religious employer. We want to know: Who decided that we need a ‘new definition’? With whom did the regulators consult on this description? Who wrote this restrictive description? What’s wrong with the commonly used exemption that religious institutions have used for years? This could never get through Congress. Only the ‘regulatory process’ is all that is left to circumvent the will of the American people. It’s just more evidence that our own government has become like a cancer, slowly eating away at our Constitutional rights. It’s time to say, ‘Enough is enough,’ and to reverse the socialist course we are on.”